 ***PLEASE NOTE: A Blu-ray 3D disc is only compatible with 3D Blu-ray players.*** Tagline: His past. Our future. X-Men Unite! An all-star cast, including Hugh Jackman, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Halle Berry, Jennifer Lawrence, Ellen Page, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart assemble and prepare for battle in this awesome adventure packed with nonstop action and excitement. As armies of murderous Sentinel robots hunt down mutants and humans alike, the unstoppable characters from the original X-Men film trilogy join forces with their younger selves in an epic struggle to change the past - and save our future! Storyline: Sentinels, robots that were created for the purpose of hunting down mutants were released in 1973. 50 years later the Sentinels would also hunt humans who aid mutants. Charles Xavier and his X-Men try their best to deal with the Sentinels but they are able to adapt and deal with all mutant abilities. Charles decides to go back in time and change things. He asks Kitty Pryde who can send a person's consciousness into the person's past to send him but she can only send someone back a few weeks because if she sends someone back further it could harm them. So Logan decides to go back himself because he might be able to withstand it. So Charles tells him that it's Mystique who's responsible because when she learned about the Sentinels she sought out Bollivar Trask the man who created them and killed him. She would be caught and studied and her ability to change was somehow added to the Sentinels which is why they can adapt. Logan must go to the younger Charles and ask him to help; problem ... Written by rcs0411@yahoo.com Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, October 9, 2014 -- Patrick Stewart is no stranger to projects featuring time travel, having appeared in one of the most fondly remembered two-part episodes from Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Time's Arrow," which capped the fifth season with a cliffhanger and then found resolution in the premiere episode of the sixth season. That might automatically qualify him in his guise as X-Men's mentor Charles Xavier as an expert, but he has a little competition from an unlikely source in X-Men: Days of Future Past: William Shatner. Whether due to the cheeky influence of scenarist Simon Kinberg or co- producer and director Bryan Singer, one Captain James Tiberius Kirk makes a cameo appearance of sorts on a video monitor in the background of a couple of quick scenes in X-Men: Days of Future Past, talking about—yep, time travel. Star Trek referents aside, X-Men: Days of Future Past presents a relatively straightforward time travel saga, one without many of the typical trappings of conundra and paradoxes that often inhabit such tales. Instead, this is a film with a mission, but figuratively and literally. While the X- Men franchise has been a cash cow for Marvel and Fox, reaction to the various films in the ever expanding X-Men universe has been somewhat spotty, and the recurrence of Singer at the helmsman seat (after similar duty on X-Men: First Class) was seen as a chance for the franchise to continue to reinvigorate itself. But within the film itself, there's also a simple and easy to understand quest, a trip back to 1973 wherein Logan, AKA Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), attempts to unite a young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lehnsherr, better known as Magneto (Michael Fassbender), in a desperate gambit to prevent Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from murdering a scheming scientist named Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), a man whose invention of mutant obliterating cyborgs known as Sentinels has wreaked havoc on the mutant population in "current" time. In some indeterminate "now", a ragtag group of surviving mutants is engaged in some kind of epic battle with looming robots that bear an eerie resemblance to a certain metal titan that was the titular character of Brad Bird's The Iron Giant. The film pretty much plops the viewer down in media res, with something going on with Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) and Bishop (Omar Sy), who remove themselves from the main field of battle to engage in some kind of activity that has Kitty cupping a blue energy field around Bishop's head. While this opening sequence fairly clearly details the fact that the giant Sentinels (which are in fact not metal, and are thus impervious to Magneto's "charms") are able to adapt to various mutants' abilities, offering near instant "antidotes" that allow them to keep the upper hand, the film can't quite escape some clunky exposition after things finally settle down and the basic setup is detailed by Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart in this "current" timeframe). It turns out that back in 1973, Bolivar Trask had already built Sentinels with the express purpose of identifying and eliminating the then nascent mutants. Raven and/or Mystique (depending on what you want to call her) had infiltrated Trask's inner circle to kill him, but the government was waiting for her and she was captured. With her shape shifting DNA now available, Trask was able to re-engineer the Sentinels to be able to instantly morph themselves, making them basically impervious to any attack by a mutant's special powers. In other words, if Bobby Drake (Shawn Ashmore) uses his ice making capabilities to freeze a Sentinel, the robot can simply instantly heat up to melt the ice. What's a mutant to do? It's at this point that the weird action with Kitty and Bishop is made clear—Kitty had been sending Bishop's consciousness back in time a few days to a few weeks after any given attack to pre-warn the few surviving mutants about the upcoming skirmishes, to provide the mutants with enough time to take countermeasures. But with their resources dwindling, options are diminishing. The few remaining mutants take refuge in an isolated monastery, where former nemeses Charles and Magneto (Ian McKellen in this timeframe) are now on the same side in trying to figure out what to do, along with stalwarts like Wolverine and Storm (Halle Berry in what amounts to a glorified cameo). Since all of this started in 1973 with Mystique's murder of Trask, it's reasoned that traveling back to that time to prevent that action might change everything. Kitty is hesitant, since even sending a consciousness back a few days is stressful for the time traveler and she doesn't think anyone could survive such an attempt. Logan of course has near magical healing capabilities and offers himself as a willing guinea pig, letting Kitty do her blue energy mojo thing around his cranium, allowing him to suddenly wake up in the era of Watergate, doubleknits and really boxy looking cars. Logan's first task is to find and unite Charles and Erik, both of whom are not exactly at their best back in the seventies. Charles has been injecting himself with a serum devised by Beast (Nicholas Hoult), a technique which has quieted the telepathic storm in his head while also revitalizing his spine, letting him walk normally. However, the injections have left him an addict of sorts, and he has withdrawn from society, leading a hermitic and somewhat squalid existence. Even more hermitic is Erik, who is being housed in a top secret facility beneath the Pentagon for having supposedly been the (literal) guiding force behind the "magic bullet" of the Kennedy Assassination. The first part of the 1973 sequences details Logan's pitch to Charles to help, something that's difficult since Charles is still nursing wounds of having lost Raven to Erik. There's also a fun and quite funny sequence where Logan, Charles and Beast recruit a young mutant named Quicksilver (Evan Peters), whose lightning fast speed allows the group to penetrate Erik's lair in the Pentagon and spring him to freedom (there's a hilarious use of Jim Croce's "Time in a Bottle" in this very amusing sequence). X-Men: Days of Future Past does its best to infuse these elements with some ostensible human (and/or mutant) interest, most having to do with the long simmering conflicts between Charles and Erik, especially with regard to Mystique, but the film actually is more successful as a kind of time traveling caper outing. While Logan and his troupe are attempting to put aside their differences, Mystique is on the prowl for Trask, who is both smarmy and deadly (especially for the mutants on whom he's been experimenting like some 1970s version of Josef Mengele). When the day of the supposed Trask killing arrives (centered around the Paris Peace Accords at the close of the Vietnam conflict), the various parties converge, and while Logan's group does keep Mystique from killing Trask, a number of unexpected developments seem to suggest that the "river of time" might be momentarily detoured, but cannot be significantly altered. As fun as the time travel element is, especially with regard to the wonderful production design that brings the decidedly kitschy seventies back to life, Kinberg's screenplay doesn't really toy with mind games the way this genre tends to. The film is structured more traditionally as a pure and simple adrenaline rush, one whose excitement is built largely around an uncertainty as to what Magneto's motives actually are, and whether or not Mystique will finally listen to reason (telepathically delivered by Charles). The film's final set piece, which sees Magneto moving an entire football stadium, plunking it down to create a fortress around the White House where Nixon and Trask are sequestered, is hyperbolic and boisterous, but also surprisingly involving. The film probably glosses over conflicts too easily throughout its running time, as well as tying everything up in a perhaps overly tidy package by the end credits. Logan's trip through time seems to ameliorate any number of traumas and tragedies that have befallen the X-Men in previous cinematic outings, to the point that some may wonder if, like that famous season on Dallas where Bobby returned from the grave, it's all been a dream. Time travel may be the "McGuffin" of X-Men: Days of Future Past, but it's a fun device that allows for some gentle skewering of a bygone age while bringing together a coterie of X-Men young and old. The film is a bit too pat for its own good, offering up conflicts only to paper over them and move right along, but under Singer's assured direction and without any distracting time travel paradoxes to muck up the works, everything zooms along swimmingly to a satisfying if (again) perhaps too overly convenient finale. The set pieces here are wonderfully staged, and as is typical of the X-Men films, performances are surprisingly solid and un-cartoonish. Technical merits here are first rate, and X-Men: Days of Future Past comes Highly recommended. (Based on Comic Book) [CSW] -4.8- I agree with what this reviewer said: X-Men: Days of Future Past succeeds not only in being an entertaining movie in its own right, but also manages to buoy the entire film franchise by telling a story that uses its time-traveling plot device (in which Wolverine is sent back to the 1970's to prevent a grim future of mutant genocide) and well-crafted exposition to flesh out the events of its predecessors. This movie is packed with content and the script leans heavily on solid dialogue to meld two lines of movie continuity into one cogent story. Fans of the Chris Claremont comics on which the story is based will delight in the way that the film captures the spirit of his writing despite taking liberties with the source material. It even works in some elements of Alan Moore/Alan Davis's contributions to the X-verse. Some may lament what the story lacks in action or screen time for its mega-stars like Berry, Stewart, Page and McKellan, but in their stead, the audience is treated to wonderful performances from Jackman, McAvoy, Lawrence and especially Michael Fassbender (Who SO deserves a Magneto-centered spinoff). Everyone steps up in this film, from Peter Dinklage as Bolivar Trask to the surprisingly entertaining Evan Peters as Quicksilver - a character I did not expect to translate so well to the screen. I would gladly watch this movie again and again and feel it perhaps only exceeded by X2 in the franchise. The little details made this movie even better, from subtle references to action that didn't detract from the story to a fantastic score/soundtrack to Singer's unique blend of gravitas and humor in his storytelling. Apart from the violence, a butt-shot and some incidental cursing, it should be a movie anyone over the age of 12 would be fine with watching. The film does drag at times, making you feel like you've watched well over 2 hours, 10 minutes of content, but it's worth every second of the journey, right to the very end of the credits. This is absolutely the X-Movie I've been waiting for!Cast Notes: Hugh Jackman (Logan / Wolverine), James McAvoy (Charles Xavier), Michael Fassbender (Erik Lehnsherr), Jennifer Lawrence (Raven / Mystique), Halle Berry (Storm), Nicholas Hoult (Hank / Beast), Anna Paquin (Rogue), Ellen Page (Kitty Pryde), Peter Dinklage (Dr. Bolivar Trask), Shawn Ashmore (Bobby / Iceman), Omar Sy (Bishop), Evan Peters (Peter / Quicksilver), Josh Helman (Maj. Bill Stryker), Daniel Cudmore (Colossus), Bingbing Fan (Blink). IMDb Rating (10/18/14): 8.2/10 from 260,617 users Top 250: #161 IMDb Rating (10/10/14): 8.2/10 from 251,907 users Top 250: #157 IMDb Rating (09/22/14): 8.3/10 from 232,161 users Top 250: #139 IMDb Rating (07/01/14): 8.4/10 from 166,518 users Top 250: #99 IMDb Rating (06/03/14): 8.5/10 from 112,933 users Top 250: #80
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